There are fresh efforts to smear the image of Senator Bukola Saraki, the Quintessential Professionals, a group of young elites in Nigeria, has alleged.
The group said some politicians who are opposed to Saraki’s ambition of becoming the next Senate president had concluded moves to start another campaign of calumny against him.
In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, James Bassey, the group specifically raised the alarm that the faceless politicians wanted to start a media campaign that Senator Saraki was allegedly distributing dollars to senators-elect in order to buy their votes during the forthcoming inauguration of the 8the National Assembly.
The statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a malicious and wicked campaign of calumny being hatched by some politicians who are bent on frustrating the ambition of Senator Bukola Saraki, to lead the Eight Senate, as the president.”
The group noted that no campaign of calumny would make the senators-elect, who had queued up behind Saraki, to change their minds as they are determined to elect their own leader and had vowed to resist the imposition of anybody on them by some selfish politicians.
The statement equally challenged members of the Senate Unity Forum to honour its pledge to Nigerians by publishing names and signatures of the 40 All Progressives Congress senators-elect, which they claimed had endorsed Senator Ahmad Lawan for the Senate presidency.
The Quintessential Professionals, however, urged the leadership of the APC to act on the letter addressed to the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, last week by 34 out of the 59 APC senators-elect, who had endorsed Senator Saraki as the next Senate president.
It is the believe of the Professionals that if the Unity Forum could toe the line of the Saraki-led group, the truth on numbers playing game would be over.
The statement added: “Let the leadership of the party conduct a primary election between the two groups so that we can have a single candidate on the floor of the Senate when the National Assembly will be inaugurated.”
The group noted that a divided Senate will not augur well for the APC as a party, the 8th Senate and the nation at large
It would be recalled that during the last retreat organised by the APC for its senators-elect in Abuja, a group under the aegis of Senators-Elect of Like Minds, endorsed the candidacy of Saraki.
They came out openly to address the press and showcase their physical identity.
The like minds group also went ahead and displayed to the press a copy of a letter addressed to Odigie-Oyegun, which contained all their signatures to buttress their assertion and numerical strength.